The designer coats donated by a Hong Kong attorney to Toulon teenager Brooke Rennick's Koats for Kids program will go on auction on eBay.com at...

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The designer coats donated by a Hong Kong attorney to Toulon teenager Brooke Rennick's Koats for Kids program will go on auction on eBay.com at noon Central Time Saturday for at least seven days. All proceeds will ultimately benefit children served by the Salvation Army in Peoria.

The coats can be viewed by eBay users by an advanced search for the seller's name, which is "us.renni." There also is a link on the project's Facebook page, but it is important to search specifically for "Koats for Kids Toulon" to distinguish it from other pages.

Coats and other winter apparel also can be dropped off at various sites listed on Facebook, including the law office of Robert Rennick Jr., 117-119 W. Court St., PO Box 430, Toulon IL 61483. Donations can also be mailed to Koats for Kids at that address.

TOULON — For the latest expansion in her four-year project of collecting coats and other winter clothing for needy kids, "powerhouse" Toulon teenager Brooke Rennick recently consulted with a high-profile business attorney based in Hong Kong.

It wasn't for legal advice, strictly speaking — the Stark County Junior High eighth-grader and her parents traveled to Chicago to meet with Kristi Swartz to discuss plans for how a shipment of pricey designer coats that the attorney had donated to Koats for Kids could bring the most benefit to children around central Illinois.

"It was pretty cool," Brooke, 13, said about the meeting that took place over pizza at Giordano's. "I got to find out where she had lived and what she did and how many languages she spoke."

Swartz, a Texas native who has lived in Hong Kong for 17 years, is managing partner of that city's office of Bryan Cave LLP, a global business and litigation firm. She learned about Koats for Kids when she glanced at Yahoo early this year and saw a Journal Star story about Brooke collecting some 500 coats for distribution last winter through the Salvation Army in Peoria.

"I just thought it was one of those stories that you read and you feel that you should act on it," Swartz said in a telephone interview. "I just can't imagine kids not having coats in the winter."

Swartz acted by sorting through her closet and boxing up 14 coats that had been lightly worn in Hong Kong's balmy climate, where "If it's like 70 or 72 degrees, we think it's cold," she said.

The shipment's arrival in Toulon stunned Brooke and her parents with both its origin and the value of garments bearing labels like Burberry, Max Mara, and Roberto Cavalli.

"With some of these, you're looking at $500 to $1,000 (in retail value), some of them even more," said Brooke's mother, Leslie Rennick, an elementary school teacher who researched the values.

Brooke has continued to collect donated coats and other winter apparel from various local sites, and recently delivered 255 items in this year's first trip to the Salvation Army. But the high-end Hong Kong coats cried out for a different approach to maximize the warming of kids.

"We're going to sell them on eBay," Brooke explained in an interview in the family home. "Then we're going to buy more coats at Wal-Mart and Jesse's Closet in Kewanee (a second-hand store), and then take them to the Salvation Army."

One reason for the luncheon meeting in Chicago was to seek approval from Swartz for that plan. Swartz approved, and said she was impressed that the question was even asked about donated goods.

"It's genius the way (Brooke) thinks about the way to get the most bang for the buck," Swartz said. "She's such a little powerhouse."

Page 2 of 2 - The coats will be sold in an eBay auction starting Saturday, and payment will go through a PayPal account already established for the law firm of Brooke's father, Robert Rennick Jr. For now, they're laid out on an antique pool table in the attic that he had renovated as a guy's retreat.

"When the coats are sold, I get my pool table back," he joked.

Rennick also is running for a judge's seat, and a campaign flyer wryly calls him a "special assistant" to Koats for Kids.

"It's the neatest thing I've ever done with my daughter," he said.

Swartz said she had recently sent two more boxes of coats that she had gathered in Hong Kong, though those have not arrived yet. She also plans to use connections in the textile trade to help Koats for Kids in other ways.

"I'm going to see how we can do more," she said. "I definitely hope to remain involved."

Brooke, meanwhile, was focused on the bottom line as she headed out the door to a basketball game at the end of the interview.